PetroChina

Center for Petrochemical Engineering and Scientific Research Achievement

Shanghai, China

Project Info

PetroChina

Shanghai, China

Completion Date: 2013
Square Footage: 630,000

Awards:
Merit Award, 2012
AIA, Georgia Chapter

PetroChina is China’s largest oil and gas producer and distributor. The new scientific campus for PetroChina is designed to create a strong international image while uniting different market research into a series of linked buildings forming a continuous composition. It will be set in a sustainably designed environment dedicated to promoting research and innovation. The 630,000 square foot (58,530 square meter) structure fills the boundaries of the site while maintaining discreet open areas that harness daylight and open views to the landscape. Four efficient research bar buildings with north/south orientation are united by workshop buildings that connect the laboratory bars into a continuous interconnected science environment.

The new campus of PetroChina will showcase its scientific development to visitors and provide a contemplative, sustainable environment fitting for an international energy company. The project will be an iconic, high-class research and development complex which integrates with other research and administrative facilities for PetroChina. The architecture style shall be complimentary of the overall campus image and goals, creating an exterior expression of the interior research program while also supporting the sustainable goals.

The main goal of the project design was to create the best research environment possible to maintain PetroChina as an industry leader throughout the 21st Century. This was done through the creation of a research campus based on the shape of the Chinese dragon. The main entry building serves as the head of the dragon while a circular sculptural glass element in the atrium serves as the “eye of the Dragon.” This element rises dramatically through the entry building volume out of the PetroChina symbol on the floor and houses the major vertical circulation, elevators and stairs. The element ties in at every level and penetrates the roof plane to create a light oculus that connects the building to the sky. Following the Dragon Concept of the building on the site, the concourse is the Spine of the Dragon, creating a generous area for staff to move through the site with continuous glass openings to views to the gardens and the sky.